Radio-iodine levels above limts found in milk 27 miles from Fukushima plant: cesium in water

jpak

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Sat Mar-19-11 07:00 PM
Original message

Radio-iodine levels above limts found in milk 27 miles from Fukushima plant: cesium in water

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/03/19/High-radiation-levels-in-some-Japan-milk/UPI-21451300550819/

TOKYO, March 19 (UPI) -- Radioactive iodine levels above Japan's allowable limit have been found in milk in a town 27 miles from the Fukushima nuclear plant, officials said Saturday.

Levels in tap water in Kawamata were below the limit, Kyodo News reported. But the level in milk raised questions about the safety of food and liquids in the area.

<snip>

In the town of Maebashi, 2.5 becquerels of iodine and 0.38 becquerel of cesium were seen Friday per kilogram of water, local authorities said. It was the first detection of the substances in the 20 years tap water has been tested.

<more>

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AndyTiedye

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Sat Mar-19-11 07:10 PM
Response to Original message

1. Doesn't That Mean That a Lot More Radiation Has Been Spewed from That Plant

than we have been led to believe?

It has made the milk unsafe 27 miles away.

This is well outside the "stay inside" zone, let alone the evacuation zone.

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FBaggins

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Sat Mar-19-11 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. Nah... it's pretty consistent.

Edited on Sat Mar-19-11 07:33 PM by FBaggins

becquerels are a really really tiny unit.

If they held a geiger counter up to you and you had up to 500 times as much radiation on your clothes... they would just tell you to go take a shower.

Of course... something you drink is dangerous at far lower levels than things on your clothes... but this is a really really small number.

As a comparison, I remember that part of canada (Ontario?) recently tightened their drinking water standards for tritium from a Bq level in the thousands all the way down to 20. This is still a fraction of that amount. There's a reason for the lower level (Iodine is more biologically significant), but it gives you a point of reference.

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jpak

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Sat Mar-19-11 07:38 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. Yes - and don't listen to the happy-talk about what is going on there

or that it is OK for folks to consume contaminated food.

At Chernobyl, most of the radio-iodine exposure was through ingestion of contaminated food and water.

Anyone under 18 years old should not be consuming any of this.

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FBaggins

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Sat Mar-19-11 07:45 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. If it's barely half the EPA safety limits here in the states... how can you say that?

Eating a banana will give you 5-10 times the exposure as drinking a liter of this water.

Surely we can agree that 1/5th of a BEM is a safe enough level for a few days? :rofl:

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